Reflection

I have enjoyed working on this learning piece. Designing v7 Tracker Reports through this class has helped define several concepts for me as a designer.

Horton's idea of Absorb, Do, Connect has made me realize that designing doesn't have to be overly complicated. I think Absorb, Do, Connect is really all encompassing when it comes to learning. Absorb, Do and Connect activities are flexible and easy to apply to any concept.

A demonstration was a logical choice for the absorb piece for my project. It fits well with learning an upgraded piece of software. I also included a flash demonstration in my absorb activity. I like that it can be used again, added to or put with other learning pieces. My Do and Connect pieces are intertwined with the absorb piece. Learners can follow along on computers during the demonstration. This gives the learners to work at their own pace. They can perform tasks more than once if they need to or jump ahead and come back when they are ready. Learners will also provide examples of what reports we have run in the past and make suggestions of how we can run them on the new version. This connects previous knowledge with what we are learning in this lesson. I believe that having a demonstration with the ability to access the computer for hands-on interaction and the video provide multiple means of representation. Learners will be able to listen, take notes, watch a video and/or explore the software at their own pace.

I have taken a different view of assessment through this process. Assessments are not only used to assess what your learners have learned. They can be part of your Do activity, they can help with learner feedback and they can be used to motivate learners to learn. Using assessments in this way makes designing easier and more flexible.

Version 7 of our software is slated to be release in early 2013. This piece will serve as a guideline for designing the rest of the learning around the release.